It was a busy day for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools June 8. In one morning, school officials announced they had enough money to keep most of the full time positions they thought they may lose. And then came
the second bombshell: Peter Gorman announced he is resigning as superintendent and taking a job with News Corporation in New York.
Just one day before, the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners voted to give CMS half of the $50 million the Board of Education had requested. The board voted 5-4 along party lines to give CMS $26 million in additional funds for the next school year. It was unclear to the Mecklenburg County board how much, if any, CMS would receive in state funding.
However, the $26 million was not enough to cover the three most important items that CMS said it would fund first if it got additional money.
Gorman said that to keep class sizes lower, maintain student weighted staffing, and keep support positions such as literacy facilitators and media specialists, they would need $34 million. However, CMS’s
announcement last week noted the $26 million would indeed cover the total cost of keeping 570 positions.
“We will use the $26 million just as we told the county that we would,” said Chief Operating Officer Hugh Hattabaugh. “The $26 million will mean we don’t have to increase class sizes and we don’t have to
change our weighted student-staffing formula. Together those two items add up to $24 million – and we’ll apply the remaining $2 million to the next item in the tier, which is support staff in schools.”
While teachers who had already been given pink slips were delighted at the news that they would keep their jobs, Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James, who represents the Mint Hill area, called foul.
“The whole thing was kabuki theater to whip up support from soccer moms,” James said this week. […]

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